Thursday, September 30, 2010

This is the highest rated flipcam video in the inventory over at the Bludgeon & Skewer Youtube page. Watch it, embed it on your FaceBook page or blog or website and do your part for Liberty in Georgia this year.

And then vote for Libertarian John Monds for Governor and the rest of the Libertarian ticket on 2 NOV 10!

Chuck Donovan who is running for US Senate in GA, and is looking to unseat old Republican Isakson seems to be the darling of the Tea Party in the Peach State. Donovan is running on a libertarian and constitutional platform so conservative that it makes Isakson seem like a Democrat in the eyes of many Tea Partiers.

He had this to say about his opponents:

“Both of you speak of fiscal discipline, but neither of you have demonstrated your commitment by putting your name on the line.” He continued, “In particular, Johnny Isakson is trying to portray himself to Georgia voters as a ‘fiscal conservative’. His record shows he has been a fiscal disaster.” Donovan goes on to warn Georgia voters “Don’t think it will be different this time unless you vote differently.”

Chuck Donovan’s Message to the Tea Party:

There have been a lot of commentators giving their opinions of the Tea
Party Movement lately. Some have been nicer than others and an
accurate portrayal of its members is usually not part of the equation.
More often than not, Tea Partiers are characterized as right-wingers,
racists, and rehashed neoconservatives.

I can tell you that I have attended several Tea Parties across the
state of Georgia as the Libertarian Candidate for US Senate. As most
people imagine, the Tea Parties and I agree on a lot. We agree that
the run away spending of the Obama Administration is unacceptable. We
agree that our national debt will cripple the potential prosperity of
future generations. When I say that the Wall Street Bailout was a
travesty, I always get a round of applause.

But the most telling part of my interaction with the Tea Party isn’t
that we agree so much. It’s how much the Tea Party is willing to turn
against an established Republican who has C- rating from the National
Tax Payers Union. During non-election years that is. Mr. Isakson
puts on the fiscal responsibility show during election years. At
every Tea Party that I have spoken in front of, members have told me
that they aren’t buying it this time.

There is a difference between the politicians seeking Tea Party
endorsements and the Tea Parties themselves. The former is hoping to
get blind support from the latter. But the latter has principals that
they aren’t willing to compromise. It shows that they have learned
some hard lessons since, being the average Americans; they are bearing
the costs of bad policies by bad politicians. Tea Partiers generally
don’t see politicians as a solution. Rightly, they see establishment
politicians as part of the problem.

Most of the commentators I have read have glossed over this important
fact. Of course someone somewhere will find an exception or scoff at
the idea that Tea Party is anything good. But I can say with
confidence that the Tea Party I have met is more legitimate than I
initially gave them credit for. The future is more important than
party politics. The Tea Party and the Libertarian Party get it. The
other two parties seem to have lost sight of that.

Chuck DonovanLibertarian Candidate for US SenateState of Georgia

_____________________

Chuck Donovan is now the only U.S. Senate candidate in Georgia to sign the No Pork Pledge. The No Pork Pledge is published by the Citizens Against Government Waste.

There's an interesting missive from a supreme high mucky muck from Prudential Financial whining about Ralph's position on making life insurance companies advertise their competitor's services in the lucrative Viatical/Life Settlement industry. According to Prudential, the paperwork compliance load alone will set them back millions of dollars.

Ain't it great when one set of rent seeking corporations does battle with another set of rent seeking corporations over the rights to your bones? You can read the PDF file here, as my cyber ninja skills aren't up to pasting it onto the blog.

Another interesting development is the publication of an article that addresses Ralph's unsuitability as Commissioner of Insurance by Viatical specialist Gloria Wolk over at OPEdNews. Temper, Ralph, Temper.

Democrat candidate for Commissioner of Insurance Mary Squires has sent out an email about yesterdays press conference down to the capital that castigated republican Ralph Hudgens for trying to limit or eliminate some of Georgia 45 health insurance mandates. It looks like that Ballou chick from Maria Sheffield's campaign might be doing some moonlighting.

As much as I hate to have to say anything positive about Huggy Bear Hudgens, I think his stance on Georgia'as 45 health care mandates is correct. In fact, I don't think he goes far enough. There is no legitimate reason for the Georgia legislature to inject itself into the medical affairs of Georgia citizens, and there sure as hell isn't any legitimate reason to compel individual citizens to pay for health care coverage that is impossible for them to use.

The focus of the press conference and the follow up email was to paint Ralph as insensitive to womens issues. The reality of our health mandates is that they force the same set of requirements on every citizen with out the citizen having any input or say so. So a single male finds that he has to pay for coverage for a whole litany of medical services that are strictly designed for females. On the flip side, single women are paying for heath services they'll never be able to use unless and until they grow a prostrate.

The true beneficiaries of Georgia's mandate system are health care insurance providers who have maneuvered the state into passing legislation that enhances their business without costing them. If half the population is paying for pap smears every month they don't need and the other half is paying for prostrate protection that they don't need, that small slice of the premium goes right to the bottom line of the insurance company. Good business if you can get it, and brother you can get it if you buy and sell politicians.

Here's Mary Squires press release:

Subject: Take a stand for women

Today, YOU Can Stand Up for Georgia's Families

Yesterday, I stood in front of the Capitol with women from all over the State demanding Ralph Hudgens stop using women's healthcare as a scapegoat for high insurance costs.

Commenting on Georgia's 45 preventative care safeguards that insurance companies must provide Georgians, Hudgens stated, "Currently, policies must cover all 45 mandates. Those mandates cover mammograms and pap smears. I don't need those. It's like requiring customers to buy the fully-loaded Cadillac at a car dealership instead of the little Chevy they can afford."

Ralph Hudgens dares to compare basic medical procedures for women to a fully-loaded Cadillac-as though pap smears and mammograms are an outlandish and lavish status symbol. His statement is inaccurate, insensitive, and offensive. We can't get car insurance without collision protection, why should we pay for health insurance without preventative protections?

I guess this shouldn't be shocking considering he has continuously blamed women for the rising cost of healthcare throughout the campaign.

Why would we vote for an Insurance Commissioner who fights---and fights hard---to strip women of life-saving coverages?

Today you can stand up against Ralph Hudgens. By making a contribution to my campaign, you can tell Ralph, "Enough is Enough!"

Georgia needs a watchdog as Insurance Commissioner, not a lapdog who will fight to make it harder on our families. We have less than 24 hours before our next financial disclosure. A contribution of $500, $250, $100, or whatever you can afford will go a long way in our efforts to defeat Ralph.

Families should not have to fight their elected Insurance Commissioner for basic necessities. As Insurance Commissioner, I promise to be a watchdog for Georgia families.

If elected, Ralph Hudgens will do more of the same. He's fighting to make it harder on our families, and I'm fighting to protect all of us.

All my best,

Mary Squires

P.S. Please forward this email to your contacts. The more people who know about the importance of this race, the better.

I just finished complying with the State Ethics Commission requirement to furnish financial data on the state of my campaign and could not help but note that nether of my opponents have gotten it done yet. I find it interesting that the republican and democrat candidates are pursuing the normal strategy of delaying the 30 SEPT 10 report until the window closes on 7 OCT 10 in an attempt to inflate their fundraising numbers.

Most campaigns do that kind of crap in an attempt to influence the election by portraying their fundraising efforts as a sort of poll that reflects a groundswell of support that will translate into victory at the ballot box. Right. To me, it's like getting your buddy at work to punch you in before you get there, it's a lie, it's cheating and it just ain't right.

So here's a new wrinkle folks. I have $225 bucks in my warchest for this election and I really don't think it's gonna get much bigger. I did have two supporters that wanted to know how they could send me $20 bucks this month but I told them to put the moola into the John Monds Aerial Banner that Doug Harman and the Athens LP will be flying at the Georgia Tennessee game this Saturday. It's a great stunt that harkens back to days of pre TV campaigning, and I applaud the guys and gals in Athens for thinking it up and making it happen.

But back to the $225 thing, I challenge my erstwhile opponents to dump their campaign donations into a suitable charity and finish this race with $225 like I'm gonna do. I double dog dare you.

One thing about running for the Office of Commissioner of Insurance is that you constantly run into stuff you never heard of before. That is the arcane nature of the world of Insurance companies and policies and the financial whiz kids that search 24/7 for new ways to separate people from their money.

Hence the phrase of the day "Viatical" which is also known as "Life Settlement". It's a relatively new venture in InsuranceLand dating back to the early 1990's when the first enterprising operators began buying life insurance policies from terminally ill patients and then cashed the policy in when the seller died.

The supposed benefit was that the Viatical/Life settlement market offered a better number than the "Cash Surrender" value to the policy holder and I'll grant that $15 dollars beats $8 dollars but that stinks when the policy is worth $100. Or $200,000. Or 2.5 Million. The whole market is predicated on the concept that terminally ill people need cash now and will cheerfully accept a fraction of the Insurance policy's value as they attempt to deal with being at deaths door.

So it seems to me that the newly flourishing Viatical/Life settlement industry is an extension of the Dead Peasant concept. And my opponents are knee deep in this stuff and yet I've heard nary a peep on the issue out of either of them. I guess it's insurance bidness as usual.

Ralph is featured in an article over at Life Settlement Pro that gets gushy about his role as the chair of NCOIL (National Conference of Insurance Legislators) in pushing for model legislation that would require Life Insurance company's to inform their policy holders that the Viatical/Life Settlement industry exists. It also appears that the Life Insurance industry is not so keen on being forced to tell their nearly dead clients that they can get a few more pennies on the dollar from a competitor. I imagine that most of them are hoping the policy will lapse prior to the policy holders demise and they'll get off scott free. According to the GAO report on this subject, that does happen and so do a lot of other things.

Mary was mentioned as a guest speaker at this years Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) Conference right here in Atlanta on 2 SEPT 10. Didn't see any mentions of that on her website, of course it hasn't been updated since mid June anyway. I have no idea if she's pro-Viatical or con-Viatical and can't wait to find out.

Bottom line is that this is a 9 to 12 Billion Dollar a year industry nationwide. That's a lot of swag and it's obviously dependent on the regulatory environment in which it operates. I've told you what I found out during an evening websearch on the topic. It'll take a little longer to formulate a campaign position on this stuff.